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Glory, the youngest child in the Boughton family, returns to her childhood home in Gilead, Iowa to care for her aging, widowed father. She recounts memories of her childhood in her family home, her father’s pride and joy, “however awkward its appearance” (3). Glory describes the dynamics within the family and the distance forged between her siblings and her brother Jack, the longtime troublemaker of the family. In adulthood, seven of the Boughton children visit their father often while Jack has remained estranged from the family for 20 years.

Glory notes how Gilead has changed since her childhood. Although many neighbors have sold their land, the Boughtons “had kept their land, their empty barn, their useless woodshed, their unpruned orchard and horseless pasture” (8). Glory recalls a dispute over land with a neighbor who planted an alfalfa patch on part of their property. Agnostic, the neighbor targets their father who is a minister. The children destroy the alfalfa patch and travel to the neighbor’s house to apologize at their father’s insistence. The neighbor’s wife harasses them and calls their father a hypocrite who “‘earns his money from the ignorance of the people!’” (11). As a result, their father gives up any

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